January 2018's For Honor pack for Assassin's Creed Origins (pictured) already introduced a Viking element to the franchise. — AFP Relaxnews
An eagle-eyed player of The Division 2 has spotted what appears to be a hint that fellow Ubisoft franchise Assassin's Creed will be heading into the Viking era.
An otherwise innocuous piece of background art in March computer and console game Tom Clancy's The Division 2 lends weight to an existing rumour that a future Assassin's Creed game will be set in Viking times.
As brought up by a user of the Assassin's Creed Fandom wiki, a poster found within The Division 2 recreation of Washington DC depicts a Nordic warrior holding a pole in one hand and a golden sphere in the other.
The poster is entitled Valhalla, emphasising its Viking connections.
The sphere is identical to a recurring piece of Assassin's Creed iconography, the Apple of Eden, and could strengthen suscpicions that Ubisoft is developing a Viking-themed entry to the franchise, or merely represent acknowledgement of an existing fan theory.
The action game franchise allows players to interact with historical figures, potentially changing (or correcting) the course of history. So far, Assassin's Creed entries have taken place in 12th century Middle East, the Italian Renaissance period, Colonial Era North and Central America, the French Revolution, and the Victorian era.
2017 release Assassin's Creed Origins took players to Ancient Egypt, and 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey immersed itself in Ancient Greece.
In February 2018, an ex-Ubisoft concept artist had been found having posted Viking-themed artwork to their online portfolio.
One of those images, since removed, had a filename that contained the string "assassincreedragnarok", though both artist and publisher said it was for a personal project.
Another rumour doing the rounds is that Assassin's Creed is heading back to Roman Italy through a 2020 franchise entry called Assassin's Creed Legion.
Previously, Ubisoft had hidden a teaser for in-development sci-fi game Pioneer inside Watch Dogs 2.
The Assassin's Creed franchise is to skip 2019, with Ubisoft thought to be preparing a new game for the military stealth series Splinter Cell as well as a third Watch Dogs release. – AFP Relaxnews
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